CHICAGO -- The way the Mets buried Cubs closer Ryan Dempster on Friday afternoon prompted manager Lou Piniella to wonder whether Dempster was tipping his pitches.

"You see four straight hits with two outs," Piniella said before Saturday's game, "and you start thinking. I don't know, but they didn't miss many."

Saturday afternoon brought Willie Randolph's turn to wonder. The Mets' sixth engagement with the Cubs this season was the second with John Maine starting. The Cubs beat him in May and battered him on Saturday. What happened to the Mets' most effective starter wasn't as dramatic as the ninth-inning meltdown Dempster endured on Friday, but it was equally telling.

Maine wasn't tipping his pitches; the Cubs just had his number. And the result was a six-run third inning and a 6-2 Mets defeat that made the Wrigleyville revelers a happier bunch.

Once the Cubs finished their thrust -- against Aaron Sele, not Maine -- the Mets didn't recover much more than Dempster had 24 hours earlier. The remaining six innings were essentially devoid of tension, made so primarily by winning pitcher Ted Lilly. Moises Alou hit two home runs against Lilly, but otherwise, the Mets' second loss in five games was one to forget.

Maine lost for the first time in three starts. He recorded just eight outs -- the first six with little resistance -- and allowed eight batters to reach base. He hit one, walked three and surrendered four hits. All six runs scored with two outs, and the rally took shape after a tight call at first base that could have been the third out went in the Cubs' favor.

The Mets still were grousing about it long after the game was over. The Cubs had Jason Kendall on third base and Lilly on second. Ryan Theriot hit a soft ground ball that passed the mound on the third base side. Jose Reyes charged, handled the ball deftly and threw to Carlos Delgado.

The television replay suggested Theriot was out. A higher authority, umpire Marty Foster, thought otherwise. Kendall scored. That third out would have to wait.

"I can't tell when his foot hits the base," Delgado said.

"Tough for me to tell," Reyes said.

The Mets didn't seem convinced. The call was lamented, not disputed on the field.

"But it would have been nice if that play went our way," Randolph said.

Little else did for the rest of the inning. Maine controlled neither the damage nor his pitches. He walked Derrek Lee on four pitches to load the bases and Aramis Ramirez on six to force in the second run. Maine then hit Cliff Floyd to make the score 3-0. A two-run single by Mark DeRosa and a run-scoring single by Jacque Jones ended Maine's workday and pushed his ERA to 3.27 (it had been 2.88 after he had pitched scoreless innings in the first and second).

And it all but assured him of his sixth loss, his second in two starts against the Cubs.

"I didn't throw strikes," Maine said. "I've done a good job lately, not walking people [six walks in 47 1/3 innings before the third]. Today, it just got away from me."

Maine (12-6) had greater regret about a play not made -- his. Before Theriot's infield hit, Alfonso Soriano hit a double-play comebacker that Maine did not handle cleanly. The play yielded just one out at first base.

"If I [make the] catch, I'm out of it," Maine said.

Lilly (12-5) was masterful, pitching into the eighth, walking one, striking out eight and allowing five hits, aside from Alou's home runs. The Mets had almost no sustained offense -- just two runners on base in the first and fifth innings, each time with two out.

Lilly's seventh victory in eight starts produced the Mets' 13th loss in the last 22 games in which they have been opposed by a left-handed starter. They had won 11 of their first games in those circumstances. Jason Marquis, who starts opposite Tom Glavine on Sunday night, is right-handed.

Alou, the man in charge of making left-handed pitchers unhappy, did as much as he could in that regard. After his day off on Friday, he hit his third and fourth home runs in the fourth and sixth innings. He thinks his swing, out of moth balls for nine days, may be almost right now.

"Not quiet there yet," he said. "I'm feeling a lot better. Tomorrow will let me know. If I have two of three good at-bats, I think I'll have it."

For all he did singlehandedly, Alou was disappointed that his first at-bat hadn't yielded more. He took a called third strike -- a very much delayed call by Tim McClelland -- with two out and David Wright on second and Delgado on third thanks to a double steal.

"David [the runner on second] had a good jump, so I let [the pitch] go," Alou said. "I don't regret it, but I have a feeling I could have done something with that one. And if I come through there, maybe it's a different game."